China improves credit blacklisting mechanism to avoid undue punishment

BEIJING - China will improve its credit blacklisting mechanism to avoid undue punishment for credit defaulters, the country's economic planner said Tuesday.

More than nine million Chinese have been denied air transportation and over three million people have been prohibited from buying soft sleeper train and bullet train tickets due to their poor credit performance, Zhang Yong, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission told a press conference.

To avoid bad loans, restrictions on granting credit for financing and enjoying government financial support have been put on over 6,000 enterprises blacklisted by the government, Zhang said.

China started to build a social credit system in 2014 and an open national credit information online platform is already in place where honest people and enterprises are honored while poor credit performers like defaulting debtors and taxpayers are blacklisted.

Supported with punishment measures like restrictions on enjoying certain services, the platform helps promote honesty and deter dishonest behaviors.

However, it is reported that some credit defaulters still face limits to some public services after they paid back their debt or taxes.

It might be a lag of credit information updating, Zhang said, adding that the government will improve the credit blacklisting mechanism to ensure that their credit records are updated timely and disputes can be well handled.

Without credit, a market economy will not fair in a stable and orderly manner, Zhang pointed out.

Sound social credit system and environment are an urgent need to ensure the decisive role of the market in resource allocation and eventually to promote modernization of China's system and capacity for governance, Zhang added.

The NDRC will continue to improve social credit system's design, regulations and standards and enhance coordinated efforts with other government agencies to reward the honest and punish the dishonest, Zhang said.